Healthcare Human Rights

It is a moral outrage for a country as wealthy as ours to leave 60 million people with no reliable access to health care and tens of millions more with inadequate or overly expensive coverage. In addition, despite spending nearly twice as much as other developed nations on health care, our system performs poorly, because the private U.S. insurance bureaucracy soaks up as much as one-third of all the money and pharmaceutical interests overburden America by avoiding price competition.

Healthcare Human Rights is part of PDA’s Fund Human Needs/Cut Pentagon Waste platform. We work on the following issue:

Medicare for All (National)

State Single Payer

Healthcare Human Rights Statistics

Americans with no health insurance = 60 million (est)

Americans with no insurance with full ACA implementation = 30 million (est)

Almost 1 million Americans declare bankruptcy each year because of medical costs – 75% had health insurance

60,000 preventable deaths occur each year for lack of medical care – with ACA the estimate will still be 30,000

Equal Rights Amendment

The ERA 3 State Strategy Issue Team is dedicated to ratifying the ERA in the timeliest manner possible—to finish what Dr. Alice Paul started 90 years ago. Our strategy is two-fold—removing the ERA ratification deadline on the national level by Educating Congress to support Joint Resolutions SJRES 5 and HJRES 53 while simultaneously organizing in targeted un-ratified states to gain the 3 additional required to make the ERA the 28th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The ERA 3 State Strategy team is part of PDA’s Civil Rights/Civil Justice platform. We organize on the web and on the ground through education with the objective of bringing allied groups, organizations (1,000 is our aim), and individuals together from both sides of the political aisle, not only to support us, but to actively participate in our efforts.Why We Need the ERA

In 1972 when the Equal Rights Amendment was first passed women earned .76 cents to a man’s dollar. Today more than 30 years later women earn .77 cents to a man’s dollar with African-American women earning .65 and Hispanic women earning .55

There are only 7 countries that have not signed onto the CEDAW International Women’s Treaty (Convention for the Elimination of All Discrimination Against Women); the United States is one of those countries because we do not prohibit discrimination on account of sex in our Constitution

The US insisted that all countries drafting constitutions after World War II include a statement that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex; the US Constitution has no such clause

End Corporate Rule

Time and again, whether we are seeking sensible healthcare, environmental, economic, or foreign policy—supported by a majority of Americans—we hit a barrier, because corporate lobbyists and donors have managed to get between our legislators and us. National and local media is right-wing and true journalism has suffered.

End Corporate Rule is part of the We The People NOT We The Corporations PDA platform. We work on the following issues:

Overturn Citizens United

Protect the Postal Service

Negotiate Prescription Drug Prices Under Medicare Part D

End the Congress Member to Lobbyist Revolving Door

End Corporate Rule Statistics and Facts

15 States and 500 Jurisdictions have called for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United

From 1983 to 2004, due to tax cuts and the defeat of labor unions, distribution of new wealth has gone:

42% to the top 1% of Americans

94% to the top 20% of Americans

6% to the bottom 80% of Americans

If Medicare were allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices with drug companies under Medicare Part D, we would save over half a trillion dollars over 10 years

Issue Team Leaders

Stop Global Warming

No issue reveals more clearly the flaws of the U.S. political-economic system than global warming. Greed and corporate power dominate the public good, and impose nearsighted focus on short term profits instead of serving our long-term needs and the welfare of future generations.

Stop Global Warming is part of PDA’s Protect the Earth platform. The team works on the following issues:

Climate Change

Carbon Tax

Green Energy (solar/wind)

End Fracking

Nuclear Free

Facts

Utilities make local ratepayers pay for damage the companies cause

Tax breaks and rebates for Solar and Wind have expired – just when we need them the most

Issue Team Leaders

Voter Access Protection & Election Integrity

The U.S. election system is in crisis. Big-money interests dominate U.S. politics in ways unknown in other industrialized countries, with social and environmental progress often blocked by officials who cater to big donors to insure re-election funds. Incumbents are unfairly insulated by district gerrymandering and rules, which obstruct independent candidates and parties.

In recent years, voters themselves have faced political and even racial obstacles in casting votes and in getting their votes counted.

A final layer of disenfranchisement exists in all-digital voting systems and internet voting. Offered as a solution to disenfranchisement, such systems are vulnerable to error and manipulation and defy public verification of results. An auditable paper ballot must protect our right to vote.

The Election Integrity Team is part of PDA’s Civil Rights/Civil Justice platform. We work on the following issues:

Election Integrity Statistics and Facts

30% of eligible Americans are not registered to vote

In 2012 the Republican National Lawyers Committee reported that 200 individuals nationwide had been charged with voter fraud since 2000; however 24 states have enacted Voter ID legislation to prevent voter fraud and 6 states are considering legislation

10% of the voting population has no Photo ID which will be required by the new restrictive state laws

Over 40% of Americans vote on machines with no paper trail; no valid audit is possible

Only 12 of the 50 states have reliable post-election audits

More than 5 million US citizens have lost their right to vote due to a past felony conviction

Team Leaders

Economic and Social Justice

The enormous wealth disparity between the top 1% and the rest of America is an unsustainable economic and social injustice. We are committed to an economic recovery that employs all those willing and able, that houses all those needing shelter, and that imposes the cost based on the ability to pay.

The Economic and Social Justice Team is part of the following PDA platforms: We the People NOT We the Corporations, Tax Wall Street, Jobs and Fund Human Needs/Cut Pentagon Waste. We work on the following issues:

Living Wage Jobs

Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)

Student Debt

Tax Wall Street (Financial Transaction Tax aka Robin Hood Tax)

Affordable Housing/Mortgage Relief/Homeowner Protection

Economic and Social Justice Statistics and Facts

Oct. 2008 – fewer than 14 million households received Food Stamps – in Dec. 2012, 23 million households did

In the same period, benefits per household have dropped from $295 per month to $274, while food prices have escalated

5 years growth of disposable personal income hit a high of 25% in 1965 and has plummeted to -5% currently

In 2000, corporate profits were about $500 billion and 66% of the population was engaged in civilian employment

In 2013, corporate profits were nearly $2 trillion and fewer than 59% of the population was engaged in civilian employment

Coalition Partners

Issue Team Leaders

Randy Shannon

End Wars and Occupations

Since 2001, terrorism and instability have increased wherever the U.S. has intervened militarily. We call on the President and Congress to rethink the false premises of an ever-expanding "global war on terror" in which Western-led alliances of absolute monarchs, corrupt governments and proxy forces fight endlessly proliferating enemies in more and more countries.

Instead we support political and diplomatic initiatives to genuinely promote peace, disarmament and the rule of international law, and to treat terrorism primarily as a crime, not as a pretext for war and global military expansion. Cut the US military budget to its 1998 level and beyond, and bring our troops home to their families. Redirect wasteful military spending to meet real human needs, create jobs and reinvest in America. From nuclear weapons to climate change, the challenges facing the world today are too serious to be sacrificed to the strategic ambitions of any one country, including our own.

The End Wars and Occupations Team is part of PDA’s Fund Human Needs/Cut Pentagon Waste platform. We work on the following issues:

Recommit to peace and to the rule of constitutional and international law

Reduce the record US military budget, bring troops home and reinvest in America

End Wars and Occupations Statistics and Facts

The current $633 billion Pentagon budget is higher than at any time during Vietnam or the Cold War.

The Obama Administration has conducted an average of 13 air-strikes per day, 91% in Afghanistan. Bush conducted 17,500 air-strikes on Afghanistan and 29,000 on Iraq during the invasions of those countries, but otherwise launched only 9 air-strikes per day.

The US returned to a peacetime military budget of $390 billion per year in 1955, 1975 and again in 1998 (adjusted for inflation). We can do the same agai now saving $243 billion per year, enough to create 5 million good jobs in America building windmills and solar panels, educating our children and providing healthcare for all.

HR 2494 (Gibson-R-NY-19) Protecting Americans from the Proliferation of Weapons to Terrorists in Syria

Team Accomplishments

Worked with peace movement partners to wake the sleeping giant of democracy and prevent a major U.S.war crime against Syria on the fabricated pretext of chemical weapons attacks conducted by Turkey and al-Nusra Front rebels.

Thanks to Educate Congress visits and our peace movement partners, a majority of Democrats now vote against the annual military budget.